Alexander McQueen's Skin is Being Used To Make A New Collection of Bags & Leather Jackets

In strange fashion-meets-tech news, a fashion design student is currently working on a collection of leather bags and jackets made from the late Alexander McQueen's skin. Quartz reports that London-based designer Tina Gorjanc, who is a student at Central Saint Martins, is using McQueen's DNA to grow human skin in a lab project for part of her material futures program at the fashion school.

The "skin" will bear tattoos, moles and freckles reflecting the real locations, size and design of McQueen's. Gorjanc launched the project titled "Pure Human" with hopes to bring to light "how corporations might one day exploit genetic information for luxury goods, and to showcase how little protection exists for a person's DNA," according to the article.

Tina Gorjanc

Gorjanc was able to use McQueen's DNA from the late designer's 1992 "Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims" collection, which he sewed his own hair into. To protect the project, Gorjanc filed two patents so far—one for the "bioengineered genetic material that is grown in the lab using tissue-engineering technology and the process of de-extinction" and the other to protect the actual design process itself.

But don't get too excited to wear a jacket made out of McQueen's skin–the final collection will most likely be put on display in a gallery rather than being sold to consumers.

Update: an earlier version of this article stated representatives of McQueen had fully supported the project. The fashion house has since clarified, "Contrary to some press reports the company wasn't approached about this project nor have we ever endorsed it".

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